PressTV-US incomes rose but inequality widened in 2017: data

The median US household income rose for a third straight year in 2017 to the highest on record since 1967 by one measure, but the gap between white- and non-white households widened, government data shows.

The US Census Bureau said in its Income, Poverty and Health Insurance Coverage and Supplemental Poverty Measure report that median household incomes increased 1.8 percent to $61,400 last year.

“Without adjusting for the change in the income questions, 2017 has the highest median household income on record since 1967,” said Jonathan Rothbaum, chief of income statistics at the Census Bureau. “When you adjust for the change, median household income in previous years was just as high.”

But while the median household income for white, non-Hispanic households rose 2.6 percent to $68,145 in 2017 and rose 3.7 percent to $50,486 for Hispanic households, it fell 0.2 percent to $40,258 for African-American households.